Saturday, March 15, 2014

Letter to the Editor

I hope to write , from time to time, about the era of the Dust
Bowl. Why, You might wonder? It was so much a part of my parent's lives. I write about it because of my fear of revisionist
history, as I see it, all over the television and radio, because of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. I grew up hearing stories about the Dust Bowl era, and
President Roosevelt's role in ending the Great Depression. About the
time that generation was dying off, people like Rush Limbaugh became
millionaires by ranting revisionist history on the radio. Put Rush side by side with Adolph Hitler and watch both of them deliver speeches. Notice that they get mad and angry, and the sincerity of their anger draws supporters. I know
exactly what my father would have said about it. He would have called
Rush Limbaugh a modern day Heinrich Himmler, a propogandist who
“revised” history for Adolf Hitler, and I have no doubt at all
about this. He fought a war so that such revisionist historians
wouldn't have a leg to stand on, on our side of the Atlantic, and he was proud of it. He
considered himself politically, “middle of the road”. Today he
would be considered liberal – but he didn't consider himself
liberal. Dad was simply a typical member of the Dust Bowl/World War
Two generation. EVERY member of his generation was just like him.
That is how and why Roosevelt was elected four times in a row. That
generation loved him, and were proud of his policies, which they MADE him do!.

Well, one day a decade ago someone wrote the letter to the editor
(left) of the local newspaper. It used to be called “Altus Timer
Democrat”. I left Altus and returned about 20 years later, and when
I mentioned the local newspaper, calling it the “Altus Times
Democrat”, I got a blank stare in return. I was immediately
informed that it was now called simply “Altus Times”. http://www.altustimes.com/
That is how
I found out they had changed their name.

Later I read the 'letter to the editor' below about Charles
Lindbergh. I too, have heard Lindbergh had been an early supporter of
Hitler. I, like many, thought after he discovered what Hitler was
really like, had 'probably' changed his opinion about him. But I really didn't, and I still don't know. So I
wasn't upset, initially, at his 'letter to the editor'. I didn't get
upset until I read the last half of his letter. He says all
Roosevelt's advisor's were Communists. NO! MORE REVISIONIST HISTORY! That is some of Rush
Limbaugh/Fox News revisionist history.

Here is that letter.

Click on the article to expand it.

Again, in my father's day, it wasn't uncommon to call people who
hated Roosevelt's policies and reforms 'evil', or even 'pro-Nazi'.
Nobody does that now. I knew my father well, and I know that is what
he would have called people like Rush Limbaugh or Fox News. But his
generation is gone now, so others can claim theat his generation had other views. Rush and Fox News would have you believe his generation, were right wing -- NOT TRUE! They were politically, MIDDLE OF THE ROAD! They liked some liberal ideas, some conservative ideas, and voted middle of the road! Far right wing ideas were very umpopular because the people remembered the Great Depression and knew right wing policies had brought it on. They'd just fought a war against Hitler and knew the horror far right wing policies might bring. Todays people have forgotten the ways of their fathers. What was middle of the road 50 years ago, is considered LIBERAL today. It is scary how far right we have become. Sadly, most people don't seem to realize it! I
know what Dad would have said about Fox News. He would have recognized them
immediately and would have called their 'news' what it was – propaganda! He
would have shown the similarities between Limbaugh and Heinrich Himmler,
Hitler's revisionist historian/propagandist. Hitler was known to give
great speeches. He would get the crowd worked up and angry at 'the
other', those not like themselves. He'd paint them as weak and wicked
and sinful. He'd get a laugh by rolling his eyes at liberal politicians, saying they were perceived as weak. They'd warp Christianity and claim it as theirs, ignoring the fact Jesus said help those in poverty. They ignored the fact that Jesus himself was dark complected, and genetically he was a Jew. They'd paint average Germans as righteous and 'the other' as lazy, takers, as leaches, people living on and using them. Sound familiar? Oh, if only the ways of 'the other' would be squashed,
the good people left would create a great nation. 'The other' is ruining it! But this could only
be fixed if only the weak, the damaged, the homeless, helpless, oh, and
the dark complected, were minimized.

Yes, dad's generation would have recognized Fox News propaganda
tactics as the same tactics used by Heinrich Himmler.

It is my hope that by speaking out on this, that many will realize how far astray we have
gone. The German population went with Hitler to an extreme, without realizing it. But we
can stop it before we go down that road to the same conclusion that they embraced. We are NOT watching this change as vigilantly as we should. Below is
my response to the Lindbergh letter above. Apparently someone had
said something about Lindbergh and this other person was upset by it.
When he lied about F. D. Roosevelt's advisors, it upset me. Here is my response to it, written a decade or so back.

About Me

Howdy. I am a 60 year old male (as of late December, 2012). I am using this particular photo for two reasons. i.] I am wearing my t-shirt that I bought at Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City -- I am vrey proud to be an Oklahoman. And ii.] I had just run 2 miles at the gym on a treadmill when that photo was taken. I am also proud to still be able to run a little at 60 years of age. My body is changing though, and I don't know if I'll still be able to run at 61. If it is possible, I will do it. Wish me luck.

I am mostly Caucasian, with a little American Indian and sub-Sahara African DNA mixed in (per DNA testing), Caucasian blood is English, German, and Scots-Irish, probably in equal amounts. American Indian blood seems to be Cherokee and/or Catawba. So many people claim some Cherokee heritage that I hesitate to mention it. Before going further I need to say we are NOT federally enrolled and we don't belong to any of the state recognized groups either. African blood will be researched later. I fear it will be nearly impossible to learn much about, but one day, I'll try. Finding African blood was an unexpected result of searching my Indian blood. Genealogy research is my passion.

My passion has also always been research of any kind, Noone ever hired me to do any, so I made my own research projects,with my genealogy project a prime example. I am proud of our research and have written a book "Finding Our Indian Blood" which will be published shortly by Bluewater Publishing.

I have a Bachelors degree in Mathematics (57 hours) with a Physics Minor (31 hours). I used to search for days on end to be hired to use that degree, but noone cared about it. I was overqualified or underqualified for every job there was. Eventually I gave up and quit telling people about it so I could get hired to do anything.

The bulk of my blogging will be about i.] genalogy research methods; ii.] my family genealogy; iii.] little known Cherokee communities and research; iv.] little known Catawba communities and research; v.] Eventually I will go into African-American genealogy research, especially as it pertains to the mixed race Indian peoples known as "Melungeon". I will fight with my last breath those idiotic notions that the Melungeons are Gypsies or Portuguese. vi.] I love Oklahoma to death. I will write about Oklahoma history as well.

vii.] Years back I had an interest in Bible prophecy. I have always thought you had to be humble to understand it. Thus those who said "God told them" how to interpret things were boasting, therefore they were not humble, therefore you couldn't believe they had any connection at all with God. I suspect God talks only with the meek and the poor, and I might be wrong about that, too. I suspect you'll have to torture me by pulling my teeth without any pain killer to get me to say much about this -- and I wear dentures so good luck with that.

Also, I have an interest in Astronomy, in UFOs, anyhting where I can use my curiosity to consider research of the unknown. I suspect I might not post about these things, either.

I also love dogs, chess, horses, and I suppose goats, too. In fact I must admit I like goats better than I like sheep. It's beyond me why the writers of the Bible preferred sheep, and why they demonized the poor resourceful goat. Well, they also said "for without are dogs" -- shame on them!

If there are no dogs in Heaven, well I am not sure I wanna go there. I recall an episode of "The Twilight Zone" where an elderly man and his dog both died. When they both walked up to the Pearly Gates the man was told his dog wasn't allowed. He said if his dog wasn't allowed, he didn't want to go there, either. Well, it turned out that was the gates of Hell, not Heaven. He eventually reached those Pearly Gates where his buddy was allowed. That's probably the most important lesson about anything that I have ever learned, or am ever likely to learn. And what was that lesson? Dogs are our guardian angels, of course! Well, that's a part of it, anyhow.

Another thing I have learned, I must travel about 20 blind allies to find a nugget of genealogical gold. The vast majority of my research finds nothing at all -- at least not about my family. But it does discover bits and pieces about the big picture, and as such might benefit others more than me. But I too benefit by gaining a little knowledge -- and oh, I do crave knowledge like an addict.

So this blog will cover a little bit about a lot of things, but as time passes that little bit will turn into a mountain, if I live long enough.

For the present though, the blog will cover things related to "my book, "Finding Our Indian Blood", a bit of research of which I am quite proud. It has taken at least 20 years and a thousand hours, and maybe 100 of those hours found something about my family. But the rest was useful also -- the book is only the tip of the iceberg.

I dedicate this blog and book to the thousands of sand grains on the river bottom that can be shown to have, once upon a time, millions of years back, been a part of a larger rock or boulder. And to that rock or boulder that can be proven to have been, millions of years even further back, at the top of the mountain. In short, it is dedicated to making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Oh, and dedicated to discovery, to research of all kinds, colors, shapes and sizes.